1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to checkout systems for retail businesses and, more particularly, to a checkout system having a scale for weighing objects for purchase.
2. Background Information
General merchandise stores and retail grocery, supermarket, or food stores utilize retail purchase transaction terminals or checkout systems such as assisted and non-assisted (self) checkout systems (collectively, checkout systems) to consummate the purchase transaction. These checkout systems generally include a scale for weighing produce and other items that are sold on the basis of weight. The scale measures weight of an item or multiple items for the checkout system to calculate a total price. An example of multiple items is a bunch of bananas or a bag of apples.
These checkout systems also typically include a scanner that is operative to read a bar code or uniform product code (UPC) that is on the item or at least one of the items. The bar code is used to identify the item(s) or contents of a bag of items. Once an item is scanned, the checkout system then knows to interrogate the scale to obtain a settled weight.
The central processor that controls the operation of the checkout system includes a weight learning database (WLDB), which stores a predetermined weight for each item stocked by the store. The weight measured by the scale is compared to the weight entered into WLDB and an error signal is triggered if there is a discrepancy between the two weights, for the scanned item.
However, this error signal can be triggered incorrectly, for example, when a hard wind blows against the security scale, when the items packaging has changed, or when the weight of the scanned item, as measured by the scale is correct and the weight listed in the WLDB is incorrect. This can happen for items such as liquid items if, for example, there has been some evaporation of liquid. Alternatively, the weight may simply have been entered into the WLDB incorrectly.
Also, some more serious security issue can arise when using self-checkout systems. For example, an unscrupulous user may weigh and scan a low cost item, say a 2 lb bag of flour, and bag a more expensive item, says a meat joint, of the same weight.
It would thus be advantageous to have a checkout system that ameliorates one or more of the above-noted shortcomings and/or problems in current checkout systems.